{"id":727557,"date":"2026-01-29T01:55:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/727557\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:55:28","slug":"coalisland-man-71-who-died-in-spar-car-crash-named-locally-as-gerard-jock-rafferty-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/727557\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalisland: Man (71) who died in Spar car crash named locally as Gerard ‘Jock’ Rafferty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police confirmed that Mr Rafferty passed away shortly after the collision in Coalisland. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolice received a report at around 12.20pm that a car had crashed into a shop in the Moor Road area and struck a member of the public,\u201d Chief Inspector Simpson of the Collision Investigation Unit said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers, along with colleagues from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, attended the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Mr Rafferty sadly passed away a short time afterwards. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Moor Road remains closed to road-users between Washingbay Road and Gortgonis Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur enquiries are continuing and we would appeal to anyone who witnessed the collision, or who may have digital footage which could assist with our investigation, to contact the Collision Investigation Unit on 101, quoting reference number 651 of 28\/01\/26.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gerard<\/p>\n

Gerard \u2018Jock\u2019\u00a0Rafferty<\/p>\n

The First Minister, Michelle O\u2019Neill, took to social media to share her sympathies with those involved. <\/p>\n

“My heart goes out to my community in Clonoe following the tragic accident at our local shop,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

“I am thinking of everyone involved. You are in our thoughts and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

SDLP representative Malachy Quinn said that his \u201cheart is breaking\u201d for the loved ones of the man.<\/p>\n

“A car has went through a shop wall and a local gentleman unfortunately has died. He was an elderly local man. It happened at around 12.30pm today at a local Spar,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is breaking for the family and loved ones to be perfectly honest. The entire community is in shock. It is a tragic accident of the highest order.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Air Ambulance, paramedics, PSNI and Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service were all at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"Gerard<\/p>\n

Gerard \u2018Jock\u2019\u00a0Rafferty passed away shortly after the collision at a Spar shop in Co Tyrone<\/p>\n

‘I want to do a follow-up album’: Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi on continuing to make music <\/p>\n

An Northern Ireland Ambulance Service spokesperson said earlier that no patients were taken from the scene. <\/p>\n

“The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a 999 call at 12:16 on Wednesday, 28th January, following reports of an incident in the Moor Road, Coalisland area,\u201d said the spokesperson. <\/p>\n

\u201cNIAS dispatched one emergency ambulance and the charity Air Ambulance with HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services) on board, were also tasked to the scene. No patients were taken from the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police confirmed that Mr Rafferty passed away shortly after the collision in Coalisland. \u201cPolice received a report at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[6722,12,16,15],"class_list":["post-727557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-christopher-leebody","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115975901969505556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}